


Warmth

by KakumeiNoHi



Series: The Stories of Winter and her Partner [7]
Category: RWBY
Genre: Atlas Academy, Canon Universe, F/F, Insomnia, Jacques Schnee - Freeform, RWBY - Freeform, Weiss Schnee - Freeform, Whitley Schnee - Freeform, Willow Schnee - Freeform, Winter Schnee - Freeform, it's a tiny bit angsty but mostly fluffy, rwby canon universe, rwby fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-16
Updated: 2020-10-16
Packaged: 2021-03-08 22:55:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,737
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27044623
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KakumeiNoHi/pseuds/KakumeiNoHi
Summary: A 7th short academy life story.............When Winter entered their room carrying her notebooks and books she borrowed from the library she found her partner sleeping on the lower bunk, the one that at the beginning Winter had claimed for herself.Ever since the two of them had first taken a nap together a while back, Winter would find her partner more often fast asleep like this on top of her bed.She had concluded that Cassie simply couldn't be bothered to climb up into her own bed whenever she was exhausted and while Winter had at first been annoyed at her partner’s level of laziness, she also couldn't blame her for taking those occasional naps to begin with.Not only were their schedules packed due to being in a special program, but Winter, during her own sleepless nights, had more than once noticed her partner suffering from nightmares that had her tossing at night. And while Winter could see her partner suffering, she also didn’t really know how to handle the situation.Winter recalled how when they were both still children her younger sister would every once on a while knock on her room door whenever she had a nightmare.
Relationships: Winter Schnee/Original Female Character(s)
Series: The Stories of Winter and her Partner [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1914799
Kudos: 17





	Warmth

**Author's Note:**

> feel free to read my 3rd story "The One in which they were tired" for a bit more reference :)

When Winter entered their room carrying her notebooks and books she borrowed from the library she found her partner sleeping on the lower bunk, the one that at the beginning Winter had claimed for herself.  
Ever since the two of them had first taken a nap together a while back, Winter would find her partner more often fast asleep like this on top of her bed.

She had concluded that Cassie simply couldn't be bothered to climb up into her own bed whenever she was exhausted and while Winter had at first been annoyed at her partner’s level of laziness, she also couldn't blame her for taking those occasional naps to begin with. Not only were their schedules packed due to being in a special program, but Winter, during her own sleepless nights, had more than once noticed her partner suffering from nightmares that had her tossing at night. And while Winter could see her partner suffering, she also didn’t really know how to handle the situation.

Winter recalled how when they were both still children her younger sister would every once on a while knock on her room door whenever she had a nightmare.

\---------------

Weiss would be shivering of both fear and cold and carrying a book of fairy tales with her. Timid and much softer than Winter had ever been she would ask her older sister to read for her, so she could forget about her bad dream. Even back then however Winter knew that she was going to leave the manor as soon as she could and rather than reading those stories to Weiss she would teach her how to read them herself. So she wouldn’t have to rely on her older sister and would be able help herself in a situation like this.

Her partner however was different, for once Cassie herself never brought up her nightmares, she had also never mentioned anything that Winter could connect to being the cause for them. Secondly the two of them were both young women, Winter couldn’t treat her like she had treated her younger sister when they were small children. Another thing was that Winter didn’t want to explain why she herself had been awake enough to even notice.

In truth Winter was no stranger to insomnia. Atlesian nights were always freezing but it was during the ones that were especially cold and quiet that doubts and fears would invade her mind. And with her mind racing, Winter’s body would follow suit and she would get out of bed to pace around their room, hoping that she wouldn’t wake up her partner. Especially now that she had finally left the manor Winter would often feel the knot in the pit of her stomach tighten.

What if all of her work and effort would be for nothing? What if Jacques would find a way to nullifying all of it in the end and drag her back? What was she even doing here anyway? Running away to join the military? Wasn’t she after all just pushing everything on her younger sister?  
Winter would feel guilt. Guilt for being selfish and trying to break away, trying to remove herself from the toxin that was corroding her very being. And guilt for leaving her siblings to fend for themselves.  
But what position was she in to help them? Wasn’t she barely figuring out a way to help herself? Wasn’t she doing all of this on her own and trying to hide her struggling, so that Weiss and Whitley would see how they too could leave and be whatever they want to be if they worked hard enough and became stronger? Wasn’t that why she had been trying her best to teach them and why she was pushing them to support themselves?

Winter knew that at least Weiss was trying to follow her lead for now, but what if Jacques managed to break and manipulate her into being his ‘perfect heiress’ anyway? Did she teach her enough? Was she keeping up with her training? What if she, like their younger brother Whitley, would basically stop talking to her as well?  
He was much younger than Winter and she knew that it had been the reason why he was much more susceptible to Jacques’ lies. Winter could only assume that their father would tell him that Winter was abandoning him and the rest of the family, that she didn’t care about him or any of them.  
She could even see him blaming their mother’s condition on Winter. And why wouldn’t Whitley believe him since Winter wasn’t even there to defend herself?  
Whitley had also never seen Winter looking after their mother in the evenings, when the servants didn’t know what to do about their mistress who had basically passed out in the garden. After all Winter had always made sure to never pass by any of their siblings’ room while she was helping their mother get to hers. She didn’t want them to see her slouched over Winter’s shoulder while Winter was steadying her around her waist.

By the time she had left for Atlas Academy however their mother had reached the state where she was at least still functioning enough to leave for her bedroom on her own after drinking the entire day. Winter still didn’t know how to feel about that. Should she be heartbroken or glad?

Like this Winter would spend hours pacing through their room until her body became heavy enough for her to collapse back into her bed and fall into a deep sleep as a result.

\---------------

Winter had put away her notes and reorganized the books on her desk and was now looking at her partner.

Sleeping like this Winter had never seen her having nightmares or feeling any discomfort. Maybe she would reach a point where she would be too tired to even dream? It wasn’t until much later in time that Winter would be told that rather than exhaustion it had been her scent that would put her partner at ease like that and that it had since never failed to do so even in the future.

For now Winter didn’t really understand why Cassie would claim her bed to nap on. After some time however Winter had realized that whenever she saw her partner sleeping peacefully like that, she herself would get a little bit sleepy.  
That combined with how any attempts to get her partner off her bed would result in a half-asleep Cassie gently pulling and poking Winter into joining her, had led Winter to growing into the habit of every once in a while simply lying down next to her to rest as well.

Winter had also noticed that if she moved close enough to her partner when she was sleeping on her side, Cassie would instinctively put her arm around her. What’s more, Winter had noticed how she would feel slightly disappointed whenever she entered the room and her partner was sleeping on her back or she had just dropped down on it face first.  
While there would still always be enough space for her to lie down next to her partner, Winter would rarely do so when she was stretched out like this. _There’s no point like this._ A thought that would always cross her mind, even though she herself wasn’t really sure about what it meant and even though she didn’t want to admit to what she secretly wanted. Winter was also simply too shy to nudge her partner to her side, so she could lean her back into her and cuddle up.

Still whenever she was resting with her partner Winter would sometimes dare herself to take the forearm that was draped over her into her hands. At some point Winter had noticed how her partner’s hand wasn’t gloved whenever she was napping like this. Cassie usually wore black half-gloves that went over her knuckles and fingers only since, according to herself, that was all she protection needed. Winter however was convinced that they were completely pointless and simply a fashion choice and that she would be better off if she wore _proper_ gloves.  
Fashion choice or not, once she had taken a closer look at her partner’s hand she noticed that if nothing else the gloves managed draw the attention away from the many tiny creases she had along her palm and the lines of it. Creases that had no doubt formed due to the amount of weapon wielding and training.

Curious about how those creases would feel Winter found herself tracing at first only one of her index fingers along her partner’s warm palm.  
Astonished at how soft Cassie’s hand still felt Winter had started to use both of her hands to trace some more along her partner’s palm, fingers, going so far as to even put her own entire hand against hers to compare.

Winter noticed that while similar in shape her partner’s hand was still slightly bigger than hers. It was also incredibly warm, different to Winter’s own hand which felt cool, due to the very nature of her semblance. Was this maybe the reason Winter would always feel like melting whenever her partner touched her with that hand? Maybe that’s what it was?  
Well, whatever it was, all Winter knew was that drawing patterns along her partner’s hand was something that would calm her mind and help her relax even when she wasn’t tired enough to actually fall asleep lying underneath her arm and leaning against her.

Today was one of the occasion where her partner was sleeping flat on her back and today was also one of the occasions where Winter wanted to join her even if she wasn’t going to put her arm around her. And so she carefully sat down on the edge of her bed to take off her boots. Just as she was about done and ready to lie down she felt her partner stir behind her. It was rare for her to wake up this easily. Had she been moving too much while taking her boots off? Winter turned around to check only to see that Cassie had simply moved back a bit and turned to the side. Winter had to bite down a happy laugh. Smiling gently she lied down and moved in to close the gap between them. It didn’t take too long for her partner’s arm to move around her waist.

**Author's Note:**

> On this other note: right now I'm also working on another longer story on the side, I have written a large portion of it, but I'm also still mapping it out most of it - so far it seems like I'll probably actually divide it into two or three chapters, so it might take me some time until I'm ready to publish it (^.^)"
> 
> Still I had to get this short chunk of writing out of my mind, so once more thank you coming this far indulging me and my writing :)


End file.
